When I read it today I noticed one idea I’d like to clarify a bit. The post contains this paragraph:

You see, people can move an application from one host to another without much trouble. The hosters want to be able to hold on to relationships with specific SaaS customers and the idea of identity services is one of the stickiest things possible. Why? Because where people have their user accounts is a very sticky thing.

The point I’d like to clarify is that, while user accounts are certainly sticky, convincing enterprise customers to move the control of their identity management systems into the cloud would be very difficult – and it’s unnecessary for hosters to get the sticky benefits. They can provide essential identity services such as secure authentication from enterprise accounts, and federated authentication, authorization and audit services to their application marketplace — all without physically holding the user accounts.

Such identity services are a key part of a platform on which application marketplaces can be built. They are a key part of any platform offered by hosters who want to build a SaaS marketplace.

The Rise of the App Marketplace: This was one of the forward-looking things that really hit me, but may have slipped under the radar a bit. The meme of the app marketplace is coming to the enterprise. Installing collaborative, emergent environments is not enough. What we’re really driving toward is an opening up of the enterprise data layer — exposing APIs, if you will — and driving toward a world where the employee (or partner or customer) is not only consuming IT applications, but BUILDING them. The IT “app marketplace” is coming. Bank on it.

To support any such marketplace there must be a platform, whether it is in an enterprise or in the cloud, and a key part of that platform is identity services.

About me

I've done a variety of things in my career, but always seem to return to issues of identity and technology. Most of what's written here will be about such things. I work for VMware, but this is my
personal blog. The views expressed on here are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the position of my employer.